In a manufacturing process of, for example, a semiconductor, a flat panel display (FPD), or a solar cell, various substrate processing apparatuses are used to perform a batch-processing or a single processing on substrates such as, for example, semiconductor wafers, substrates for FPC, or substrates for solar cells, for example, a thermal processing apparatus, an etching apparatus, and a film-forming apparatus. In a semiconductor device manufacturing process, for example, thermal processing apparatuses are used to perform heating and processing of substrates such as semiconductor wafers, for example, processings such as formation of a CVD film and formation of a thermal oxide film. As the thermal processing apparatuses, a vertical thermal processing apparatus is known, in which the thermal processing apparatus is vertically installed and includes a cylindrical reaction tube (process tube) including an opening disposed at the bottom side and a heater disposed at the outside, and a plurality of semiconductor wafers are introduced into the cylindrical reaction tube so as to perform a batch type thermal processing. In the batch type vertical thermal processing apparatus, the semiconductor wafers are stacked and arranged to be spaced apart from each other like a shelf in a substrate holder made of, for example, quartz, and called a wafer boat, and the semiconductor wafers are introduced into the reaction tube from the opening at the bottom side.
In addition, in the vertical thermal processing apparatus, processing conditions in performing the thermal processing on, for example, semiconductor wafers are set in a plurality of recipes in advance, and a desired processing is adapted to be performed by selecting a recipe stored in a storage unit of a control device, for example. The processing conditions set in the recipes include, for example, a type of processing gas, a flow rate of the processing gas, a processing temperature, a pressure, and a processing time.
For example, in a case where a CVD film is formed or a thermal oxide film is formed in the vertical thermal processing apparatus, it is requested that the film be formed to have a thickness accurately coinciding with a target film thickness set in a recipe. Thus, a film thickness of, for example, a CVD film formed by practically executing the recipe is measured, and a process condition that reduces a difference in thickness between the film thickness and the target film thickness is calculated by an optimization calculation so as to correct and optimize the recipe (see, e.g., Patent Document 1).
However, there are multiple types of thermal processings which are performed in one thermal processing apparatus for each film type or each film thickness, for example, and the number of required recipes increases. Meanwhile, since an operation of optimizing a recipe takes a time, for example, about four hours are required for optimizing one recipe by executing the recipe, and performing, for example, a film thickness measurement and an optimization calculation, and much time is required for optimizing a plurality of recipes.
In addition, it has been proposed to define data, in which a change is possibly made, as process parameters when preparing recipes, and to call out and change the process parameters in batch when changing the recipes so that the recipes can be efficiently changed (see, e.g., Patent Document 2).